Training -- Sat 11/01/2014

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x15/15

Bench Press/Pull Ups

10x20kg
5x40kg
5x60kg
3x5x72.5kg/10xBW
2x5x72.5kg/8xBW

OHP/Cable Row

10x20kg/12x50kg
5x30kg/12x50kg
1x37.5kg/12x50kg
5x42.5kg/12x50kg
5x42.5kg/5x60kg
5x42.5kg/1x70kg
--/1x80kg

Training -- Fri 10/1/2014

Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x72.5kg
3x1x85kg -- I physically could have done more reps, but mentally wasn't feeling it.

Back Squat

1x95kg
1x105kg
1x110kg
1x115kg
1x120kg -- Not so pretty on the way up. This was a beltless PB for high bar squats.

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
2x140kg
2x160kg
2x170kg
7x140kg -- Tim was talking up the 2xBW 10-rep deadlift I did back in my last training phase, and I felt like I had to live up to some expectations, but the 7th rep felt a bit wonky, so I decided to be sensible and end the set there rather than going on and breaking my back.

Glute Bridge

3x10x40kg

One-Legged Calf Raise

3x8x20kg

And I did 5 ring pull ups, just to test out the rings, as in a couple weeks time they'll become my main source of pull ups, as my time at Strength Sports Gym is coming to an end to usher in my time at Masterpiece Strength Academy, where I look forward to training a lot of people and continuing my own development.

Training -- Thur 9/1/2014

Rotator Cuff/BPA

15xOrange/15xOrange

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x72.5kg
4x82.5kg -- Attempted a 5th rep, failed to lockout (same as last rep on Tuesday)

Pull Ups

4x6x11.25kg

CGBP

3x8x62.5kg

Incline DBBP/Barbell Row

3x11x20kg/10x40kg

Training -- Wed 8/1/2014

Pause Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x3x75kg

Pause Squats

5x75kg
5x85kg
2x5x90kg

Goodmorning/Calf Raise

3x8x40kg/15x300lb

Glute Ham Raise

1+1neg xBW -- Knee pad set too far back for proper leverage
2x3xBW -- Knee pad fixed up

Training -- Tue 07/01/2014

Rotator Cuff/BPA

2x15xOrange/15xOrange

Bench Press/L-Pull Ups

10x20kg
5x40kg
14x62.5kg/7xBW
12x62.5kg/7xBW
8x62.5kg/7xBW -- Attempted a 9th rep and spent a lot of time trying to lock it out. A lot. Unsuccessfully.

OHP/Fat Gripz Row

5x30kg/12x55kg
4x5x37.5kg/12x55kg
5x37.5kg/11x55kg

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 6 -- Warming Up

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Warming Up

Warming up isn't something I normally write about, although if you follow my training logs, you can usually see it going on in my first exercise of the day, and occasionally on other exercises that need it. Warming up is honestly bad terminology to use, because physically being warm is only one element of a successful warm up. The primary goal of warming up is preparation for work.

Because everyone's different, you and the person next to you shouldn't necessarily warm up the same way for the same workout. And, because different workouts have different aims, you really shouldn't warm up the same way for two different workouts. Why? Because, once again, the goal of warming up is not to be warm, but to be ready for work. What it takes to get you ready won't be the same as what it takes for someone else, and as an individual, different tasks require different methods of preparation.

Light Cardiovascular Warm Up (General Warm Up)

This is right up there in the most common ways people warm up. And in some instances, they even should warm up this way. But it's not always necessary, and often people turn it into a cardiovascular workout in and of itself, which can have a negative impact on your workout if the aim of your workout was not low-to-moderate intensity cardio.

The general goal of a light cardiovascular warm up is simply to get the blood flowing, the body moving, and the temperature rising. When it's appropriate to do so, most people only need a 5min light cardiovascular warm up, unless the environment is cold, in which case longer may be necessary. People with conditions such as asthma, however, often need a longer, slower warm up, so that their breathing and body temperature increases steadily and doesn't cause their condition to play up.

Mobility Warm Up

You gotta stretch while warming up, right? Well, depends. If you need to stretch in order to safely get into the positions you'll be working in, then yes. If not, then it's not so important. If you are going to stretch during a warm up, it's normally preferred that you perform dynamic stretching, as holding a stretch relaxes the muscles, and most of the time relaxing your muscles is not conducive to work. Of course, this does depend on the work you're doing and how much range of motion you can get out of dynamic stretching.

Specific Warm Up

This is the part of the warm up that you'll typically see in my training journal. Whatever your activity, specific warm ups directly prepare you for work. A specific warm up might come after a general warm up and mobility warm up, but that isn't always the case. For example, while I generally do a little bit of stretching to prepare for squats, and would do general, mobility and specific warm ups for sprinting, my bench press warm up is simply to bench press, starting with an unloaded bar, and to increase the weight set after set until I'm ready for work.

In the specific warm up, you'll typically do one of two things:

1) Drills that work on specific parts of the exercise you'll be working with

2) The exact exercise you'll be working with, scaled down to a lower intensity

For the most part, if you have to do the first, it will be followed by the second.

When it comes to drills, they should work on specific skills or technique points that you'll be focusing on during the exercise. For example, a drill I'll tend to put myself through for sprint training is to walk, but drive my knee up high and at the same time drive my heel up to my butt with each step, preparing for the movement I'll be performing once the speed increases. Or, back when I was trying hard not to suck at the Olympic lifts, I did a lot of high pulls, high hang snatches, low hang snatches and snatch balances as drills in my warm up.

When it comes to scaled sets of the exercise you'll be performing, it's quite simple: you begin with a load that is very light, and, just like in the general warm up, you do enough volume (reps or distance) to get your limbs moving and some blood flowing. With each set, the intensity increases and the volume decreases.

The most common mistake made at this point int he warm up is to treat warm up sets as work sets. That would generally mean approaching failure with each set. Warming up is not work. It's just preparation for work. With that in mind, here's an example of how not to warm up for a 100kg squat (aiming for sets of 5 reps), and how to warm up for it.

How not to do it

50x20kg

30x40kg

20x60kg

10x80kg

Once you've done that, you'll be sufficiently stuffed. You may not even be able to do the work sets.

How to do it

10x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

1x80kg

If doing only 1 rep at 80% of your working weight looks too easy...good, you're getting it. Warming up isn't supposed to be any harder than it needs to be to get you ready for the real work. In fact, it should make you able to do the real work as best as you possibly can, which is going to be a lot better in this second scenario than in the first.

Training -- Mon 06/01/2014

Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
5x60kg
3x5x75kg

Back Squat

3x10x95kg

SLDL/Calf Raise

3x6x95kg/11x340lb

Glute Bridge/Calf Raise

3x10x35kg/11x340lb

Training -- Fri 03/01/2014

Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x72.5kg
3x3x82.5kg

Back Squat

3x5x102.5kg -- 1st set beltless, 2nd and 3rd set with a belt.

Deadlift

10x70kg
5x100kg
2x120kg
3x3x150kg -- Don't know why this was so weak, considering I was doing this weight for 5 last time.

GHR/Calf Raise

1+2neg xBW/12x300lb
2x2xBW/12x300lb

Methinks I'll be skipping out on training tomorrow. Minimum temperature 26C + max temperature 41C tells me I'm going to spend the entire day sitting in air conditioning instead of venturing outside.

Training -- Thur 02/01/2014

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x15xOrange/15xOrange

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x70kg
5x80kg -- Last rep was not the grinder that this was 2 weeks ago. Small progress by technique/RPE.

Pull Ups/CGBP

2x6x11.25kg/8x60kg
5x11.25kg/8x60kg
4x11.25kg

Incline DBBP/Barbell Row

2x10x20kg/5x50kg
9x20kg/5x50kg
--/2x5x50kg

Training -- NYE/NYD 2013-2014

The last half hour of 2013 was spent doing what my unfit friends called "hiking" (I call it walking along the road) to get to a spot where we could see the New Year's fireworks. 12:15-12:45am was spent doing another "hike" to return home.

I'm doing an outdoor group training session this Saturday (not my normal repertoire), and decided this morning that I should really head on over to the park it'll be at and get a feel for the place, establishing a general idea of what I'll do on the day. This basically meant a 10min warm up, 20min of sprint training, 5min of stretching (all stretches used to prep participants to learn how to squat), and 2 rounds of a circuit of squats, push ups, child's pose, bird dog and bridges. That worked out to be 45min. On the day I'll do a 3rd round of the circuit, and maybe some extra ab work. Then close with another 5-10min of stretching. I would have done the full hour, but I didn't have a PT there to motivate me...or whatever.